The present invention relates to the field of television in general, and more particularly, to set-top boxes for televisions.
The television (TV) has become ubiquitous in modern society. As a result, a variety of services are being provided via TV. Many of the services are provided using a set-top box that works in conjunction with the TV to provide the desired service. One example of a service provided via a TV is an online TV program guide, wherein TV program schedule information is displayed on a TV for searching and selection by a viewer. Online TV program guides are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,751,578 to Reiter et. al. Entitled xe2x80x9cSystem for Electronically Controllable Viewing on a Television Updateable Television Programming Information.xe2x80x9d Other popular services are also provided using a set-top box. For example cable or satellite TV may be provided using a tuner packaged as a set-top box. The tuner decodes the transmission from the service provider and formats the signal for display on the TV. Moreover, many households have more than one TV.
It is also known to provide some services over the Internet using set-top boxes. One such service is WebTV which enables a user to browse the Web using a TV as the display. WebTV, however, duplicates much of the hardware and software included in a standard PC. For example, WebTV includes a modem while many PCs come equipped with one. Consequently, the consumer who already owns a PC may pay the cost of the modem twice: once when buying the PC and a second time when buying WebTV. Furthermore, WebTV may also duplicate a portion of the functions found in most TVs. This duplication of PC and TV components may make WebTV unnecessarily expensive or complex to the many consumers who already own a PC.
Moreover, as the popularity of TV and services increase, it may become more desirable to provide multiple users in the same household with the capability to use services separately. Unfortunately, the cost to provide multiple TV users separate access to the services described above may be prohibitive. For example, viewers of different TVs may desire separate information. Consequently, there is a need to provide improved methods and systems for providing television services to multiple TVs in a household.
It is an object of the present invention to provide improved set-top boxes for use with television services.
It is another object of the present invention to provide improved systems for the use of multiple set-top boxes.
These and other objects of the present invention are provided by set-top boxes, identified by respective identifiers (IDs), that send requests for information a PC over a communications link. The requests include the ID of the set-top box that made the request. When the requested information is accessed, the requested information and the ID of the set-top box that made the request are transmitted over the communications link to the set-top box. Accordingly, multiple set-top boxes may access information from a single residence via an existing PC, thereby allowing a more cost-effective approach than conventional systems.
In one embodiment, a computer program running on the PC handles requests from the plurality of set-top boxes. In another embodiment, a computer program is instantiated for each of the plurality of set-top boxes. For example, a first computer program is instantiated to handle requests from the first set-top box and a second computer program is instantiated to handle requests from the second set-top box.